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OT: Lawn Care

There should be a few people on this board that are lawn experts I bet. Here is my question.
I have a fairly new house built in 2004 and the sod has taken a hit last year. It became over run with White Grubs and also a new Chocalate lab Puppy. I normally just get the Trugreen At Home package that consists of 5 steps through out the spring and summer. Since I don't know much about this can someone give me advice on what the best thing to do with my lawn starting here in the spring to get it green and healthy again. I had it professionally treated for grubs in the fall.
So do I need Spring Grub Control? Turf Builder? Seed it? Crabgrass preventer, Lawn Food,.....This makes my head hurt. And I get scared because I don't want to burn up my grass by applying the wrong or too much stuff. I have about 5,000 SF of grass.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

Plain and simple, if you want it green you have to have a Nitrogen. If you look at a fertilizer bag it is going to have 3 numbers which is the fertilizer analysis (ex: 30-4-3). The first number is the Nitrogen analysis and in the example shows there is 30lbs of Nitrogen for every 100lbs of product. It used to be that when you applied fertilizer all the N became available for the grass to use right away so ya your lawn turns green, but you are mowing it twice a week. Now, at least with the higher quality stuff, the N is encapsulated so it becomes time released allowing your grass to turn green but not grow as fast. The second number is Phosphorous and the third number is Potassium. These fertilizers are actually better for your grass in that they promote root growth so your grass is more drought tolerant and isn't so quick to turn brown in August when we don't get so much rain. Basically the N stimulates growth on top of the ground, the other two promote growth underneath the ground. If you could find the ultimate, it would be something where the N number isn't so high and the P & K numbers were higher. Most Coops carry a product that has the analysis of 9-23-30 and that is my choice. I worked agronomy for quite a few years.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

Thanks for the info.
I also have a a nice collection of Yellow spots from Dog urine right in the middle of my yard. Isn't that because of excessive nitrogen in the urine? So I should probably not treat that with more fertilizer?
Grub treatments in the summer? Is that because that is when they start to arrive?

Re: OT: Lawn Care

Cyclonesrule91 provided the same advice to me last year - the man speaks the truth. We seeded last year, so our lawn still looks like crap - but I expect that to change by around fall this year - after I put some crabgrass preventer down this spring, feed it properly and then overseed again (with aeration this time) this fall.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

Also for a really quick green up if you have a fairly decent yard a little iron will do wonders. And yes, crabgrass preventer/fertilizer in the spring, grub control in early to mid july will get the little ground shrimp, and the ABSOLUTE best time to control dandelions is with a herbicide in the fall. As far as the dog there really isn't anything you can do unless you can train your dog to pee on a tree that has rock landscaping or something around it so it won't kill anything. Watering the spots heavily can help by washing the urine through the roots and helping reduce the time it takes before the grass recovers.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

Originally Posted by brianhos

Ok, so my lawn question. When do we put the first step on? Before it gets green or once it starts going?

I would wait until the frost is out of the ground. Right now there is about 8-12" of frost in the soil yet. When the weather turns warmer and the moisture soaks into soil istead of running off towards the sewer drains is the time to apply. Also when the soil temperature gets to stay at least 50 degrees is when things start to wake up in the soil. Wait until then and preferrable late evening before we get rain is ideal.

The dog urine in the yard question is not a problem with too much N but more so that dog urine is quite acidic I think and so it burns the grass.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

I would definitely overseed you lawn too early on when the soil warms up some. Spraying for weeds, as tyrelrobert said is best done in the fall and using something with Dicamb(Banvel) or 2-4D will do the best job on weeds without affecting your grass. You will get the biggest bang for your buck if you spray your yard, but make sure you use an oil based(ethly) chemical and not a waterbased(amine) because those products by themselves tend to turn into vapor when it warms up and drifts whereever the wind takes it and neighbors flowers, some small trees and shrubs are pretty succeptible to those products. The oil based products will stick to the plant material and are then much less proned to drift. Spray later evening as well and then the product has all night to dry out and get into the weeds system.

I would wait a while to fertilize though. With the frost in the ground yet, if we get a cold rainstorm the rainwater will flow across the top of the grass heading towards the sewer drain, as opposed to soaking into the ground, and you could lose your fertilizer or worse yet it could get taken to the low spot in your yard where it collects and too much will kill the grass. Most likely you would be alright doing it now, but I would wait till frost is gone and soil has warmed up some.

Re: OT: Lawn Care

I'm not looking to kill weeds now, but need to prevent crabgrass. I'm going to put crabgrass preventer down - even the man himself couldn't stop me from doing that. Our lawn was nearly overgrown with it last year.

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